No, I don't like the trend so far. WinXPpro is bugging me already, each time I reboot, because I don't have an AV installed.
If M$ likes to complain about it, why don't they provide an AV in winXP. If there is no AV, don't complain and let the user do it.
I installed an AV to get rid of their warnings.

M$ doesn't see the wood through the trees anymore and provides winVISTA with unnecessary gadgets, while so many other more important issues need attention.

No, I don't like the trend so far. WinXPpro is bugging me already, each time I reboot, because I don't have an AV installed.
If M$ likes to complain about it, why don't they provide an AV in winXP. If there is no AV, don't complain and let the user do it.
I installed an AV to get rid of their warnings.

M$ doesn't see the wood through the trees anymore and provides winVISTA with unnecessary gadgets, while so many other more important issues need attention.

Stick with Windows XP, and continue to dabble in linux and bsd, hopefully learning them so I can make the complete switchover and force others in my household to(not only me using this comp unfortunately).

None of the above - I don't even particularly like the XP on my other two systems. I haven't heard or seen a single thing about Vista I even remotely like, and I'm very happy using win2k on my personal machine. I'll admit I was using 98 far after most had moved to XP but... I really love 2k. I'm still in control of my own computer with it. I had to use SafeXP just to get the XP machines tolerable.

I'll continue on with Linux ... I've already completely migrated to it, I don't see myself turning back. The only way I'll end up with Vista at all, is if I buy a "pre-made" machine for which the price is truly irrisible.

Stick with Windows XP, and continue to dabble in linux and bsd, hopefully learning them so I can make the complete switchover and force others in my household to(not only me using this comp unfortunately).

I will propably switch to linux, due to the reasons you mention. I wont spend hundreds of dollars to be crippled. I guess the only ones who will enjoy Vista will be the guys with a pirated copy
I´ve been thinking about the switch for a long time but the learning curve has made hesitate. But now that I have VMware so I can run Linux (Ubuntu) at the same time, I am slowly moving there. And it is slowly coz one have do alot of re-thinking, the file system and installing programs and stuff are a real pain now in the beginning
But the information on the net on how to solve problems and howto´s are amazing